Augusta Confidential: Chapter 11

Our undercover lawmaker on Voter ID-iocracy, Chemtrail Caucuses, and the Curious Case of the Quiet Libby.

Reese Calloway is the pseudonym for a currently serving Maine legislator.

By Reese Calloway

This week, under the Dome, the Republican caucus gifted the rest of us a whiplash-inducing mocktail of economic gaslighting, climate conspiracy and legislative dramaturgy that could’ve doubled as a pilot for the hot new reality show “QAnon’s Got Talent: Downeast.” If you thought local politics couldn’t spiral further into parody, buckle up, buttercup. Because the clown car doing donuts in the State House parking lot just crashed into last week’s dumpster fire and there’s body parts strewn across Capitol Park.

Let’s begin with LD 995, the “How to Tell Who Hates Poor People?” bill. Okay, that’s not its official title, but it should be. “An Act to Provide Funding for Low-income Electric Ratepayer Assistance” would expand eligibility for critical energy assistance programs, which you’d think was an easy political layup in a state where people can freeze to death while waiting for oil and propane deliveries. But that cold reality didn’t stop a chunk of the Republican caucus from contorting themselves into knots trying to vote against it without admitting, out loud, that they just don’t like low-income Mainers.

The anti-poors excuse? Something-something-something-net-energy-billing. Honestly, it’s tough to understand, let alone explain, for normal people. Only Rep. Don Ardell, the Republican from Monticello had enough aporophobic backbone to loudly express his opposition to helping the financially less fortunate. The rest of the GOPers selected silence over spine. So go ahead and check the roll call to see which cowards quietly sold out their low-income constituents while hiding behind capitalistic buzzwords.

Then there was LD 499 – “An Act to Prohibit Geoengineering” sponsored by Rep. Tammy Schmersal-Burgess, a hairdresser from Mexico. This silly bill called for a $10k daily fine, plus a misdemeanor charge for anyone caught trying to modify the weather “for the purpose of counteracting climate change.” This was less a legislative hearing and more of a live-action ranting from the far reaches of r/conspiracy forums or a wacky thread on a 4chan bulletin board. Rep. Tracy Quint, an actual RN, took to the mic to assure Maine that cloud seeding is real because “a company in Connecticut” said so. Huh?

The rest of the mostly anti-science testimony was a mash-up of incoherent rambles concerning Saudi Arabia, solar panels, tree harvesting and shark attacks mixed with a screaming “climate policy via TikTok influencer” vibe. Unless you showed up already wearing a tinfoil hat, you probably left with a headache. Especially if you were expecting to hear anything remotely factual.

LD 749, sponsored by Rep. David Boyer of Poland, proposed a macabre but valid question: What happens if a sitting U.S. Senator croaks, kicks the bucket or is otherwise found deceased? This bill requires the governor to appoint a replacement from the same political party. You’d think a mandate limiting executive privilege might provoke some serious debate. Instead, it was met with collective apathy. Silence except from Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, who seized the moment to once again demand to know why we’re even here. Apparently, her stint in Augusta has necessitated a cut-back on her day job of selling used cars. (Spoiler: We’re here to govern. Not that Rudnicki is familiar with the concept of getting stuff done.)

The “State of the National Guard” address, to everyone’s shock, was a brief ceasefire in the dumb chaos. For once, even the performative patriots and Gravy Seals sat down and shut up to listen to Brigadier General Diane Dunn explain the good work, accomplishments and trials of Maine’s part-time militia responding to severe storms and other emergencies.

The Shadow Broker at the Microphone

Now onto the main event: the Voter ID circus. Or as I like to call it, “How to Pretend You’re Not a Racist While Dismantling Voting Rights 101.”

The hearing on the Voter ID ballot question (and its companion bills) was a MAGA fever dream. Or a MAGA wet dream. Hard to tell with these morons. No matter. This sideshow was peppered with bad acting, worse policy proposals and a parade of testifiers who would prefer the Constitution be printed on the back of a Chick-fil-A napkin.

Rep. Reagan Paul kicked things off with her impersonation of a student giving a book report they didn’t read. Her death grip on the podium matched the desperation in her dull eyes as she stumbled and mumbled her way through a script she clearly hadn’t written (and probably hadn’t read). If it weren’t so pathetic, it would’ve been funny, as she struggled with polysyllabics with so many letters and so little substance.

The entire Republican protestation was clumsy at best, hypocritical at worst. You can’t gut DEI and trash equal rights, and then clutch your goddamn pearls when someone explains that voter suppression is racist. The cognitive dissonance was so strong you could hear multiple psyches creaking, practically crumbling, under the weight of ignorance and irony .

Then came Alex Titcomb, the mastermind behind the conservative PACs pushing this Voter ID mess of a ballot initiative. You’d expect the architect of a statewide ballot campaign to be… I don’t know… competent? Instead, he gave off a rehearsed gravitas of a man who’s spent far too many late nights reading Heritage Foundation blog posts, then posting Machiavellian and/or Sun Tzu memes in the service of strategy. Under the Dome, he bragged about his bigly signature counts while accusing the Secretary of State of voter suppression for – gasp– following the rules. It’s called verifying the minimum signatures required by statute, Mr. Titcomb, not vibes-based validation. Compared to his elected Brethren and Sistren, though, Titcomb’s testimony at the public hearing was practically a masterclass in deflection. Or, more accurately, Deflection for Dummies.

Voter fraud in Maine? Virtually nonexistent. But Titcomb pitched instituting barriers to vote like they were a harmless civic tune-up. As if requiring photo ID is a customer service improvement, not a racist and anti-democratic attempt to disproportionately disenfranchise the elderly, the poor, students, rural Mainers, New Mainers and anyone else the patriarchy views as a threat to the future of mediocre milquetoasts and their sycophantic bootlicking bois.

From appearances, Titcomb seemed like another buttoned-up policy giraffe allegedly concerned with election integrity. The reality: he wasn’t just a guy at the podium, he’s the one who booked the room. You see, Titcomb is the executive director of “Dinner Table PAC,” a political goulash of hate cooked up by him and Rep. Laurel Libby in order to serve an all-you-can-eat buffet of far-right ideology cloaked under the disarming disguise of faux-“family values.” Since 2021, the PAC has raised about a million bucks while indoctrinating and training a pipeline of ultra-conservative jabronis who work overtime networking at End Times Churches to ensure Maine’s culture wars continue via countless campaign mailers and brainwashed Christian-Nationalist candidates.

Titcomb paints himself as a homegrown reformer, but the money behind him (and deep google) tells another story. An End Times cultist with an anti-papal fixation, Titcomb first entered the political arena in service of Libertarian Uber-Mensch Ron Paul. He went on to work on behalf of carpetbagging faux-Republican Eric Brakey who was elected several times to the State House, but lost every other campaign he ran. Titcomb’s greatest success came after he teamed up with Laurel Libby, acting as her campaign manager and co-creator of PACs that financially support bigots, homophobes and anti-vaxxers.

According to the Dinner Table filings with the state, Titcomb appears to be a competent fundraiser. After all, an imbecile would have a hard time bringing in a million bucks. Titcomb, though, does utilize one fundraising technique that would have his Savior, Jesus Christ, spinning in his tomb. Thanks to Maine’s slackadaisical gun regulations, Titcomb has found a cash cow, of sorts: Raffling off firearms in order to raise money to elect candidates eager to bring Biblical law to Augusta. As you can see in the images below, Dinner Table PAC loves to traffic guns intended to end up in their donors’ hands.

However odd the gun-raffle may seem, it’s legal because of the Dinner Table’s patented workaround. Apparently, the winner receives a gift certificate, redeemable at a local gun store, in order to shield the PAC, I guess, and absolve them of any legal responsibilities in case the free blicky is ultimately used by the donor/winner to commit a crime.

One of Titcomb’s other political vehicles, a PAC called “For Our Future” recently cashed a $50,000 check from The Concord Fund, a national conservative juggernaut tied to Leonard Leo, the Maine-based judicial puppet-master who handpicked Trump’s Supreme Court. When Leo Leo’s people invest in local politics, it’s a hostile acquisition, not a donation. And that 50 large was just the latest payment from Leo’s coffers. As of today, according to state records, the Concord Fund has given $375,000 to “For Our Future.”

At least $100,000 of that cash, btw, has been funneled to the Dinner Table PAC. And another 100k, give-or-take a couple grand – has been paid out to Ignite Strategies, an LLC operated by Titcomb, out of his house in the town of Bowdoin.

And Leo Leo isn’t Titcomb’s only oligarchic master. The proof is in the pudding. In 2024, Titcomb was named a fellow with “The Club for Growth,” an anti-democracy org funded in part, by Richard Uihlein, the election-denying billionaire shipping and packing supplies magnate (U-Line) who also funded various earlier failed voter suppression schemes run by GOP House Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham.

Remember last year, when Maine voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum to actually rein in dark money in our elections by putting a $5,000 cap on donations to Super PACs by individuals and organizations? Despite 75 percent of voters supporting the measure, a month after the election, Titcomb turned around and sued the state. Because when democracy doesn’t go your way, the next step, apparently, is to lawyer up and try to murder Lady Liberty in court. Just ask Laurel Libby.

But Titcomb’s ambition – and checkbook connections – aren’t limited to State House side dishes and legislative races. He’s also the so-called brain behind the Vote for ME PAC, the operation that organized and funded the Voter ID referendum in the first place. While most normal humans were concerned with defending democracy, Titcomb was busy downloading the voter suppression playbook from Texas and Florida, then slapping a lobster trap and lighthouse on the cover.

Thankfully, Democrats were ready. The tag team of Senators Jill Duson and Craig Hickman executed a surgical takedown that could be studied in future campaign strategy and wrestling classes. Duson’s questions gently disarmed Titcomb, while Hickman dropped the hammer. Titcomb looked like he was taking the SATs without a calculator or pants. And when Rep. Boyer tried to bail him out it was too late. The mic drops had already echoed across the fourth floor. You know you’re shit outta luck when your backup strategy is to have the guy eagerly awaiting the clock to strike 4:20 come to the rescue.

Speaking thirdly in favor of voter suppression was the still-under-censure Laurel Libby. That’s right. Rep. Stepford Eyes (R-Auburn) has been relegated to third chair. In MAGA land, that’s like being seated at the kids’ table on Thanksgiving. Once the screeching face of this movement, Libby now seems like a ghost of her former self. No howling. No finger-pointing. Just a quiet, shaky delivery that suggested either looming sorrow or a mid-life crisis. Is she preoccupied with next week’s anti-trans hearings? Or is she medicated as a way to handle being defeated, regarding her and her mother’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to get un-censured? Hard to say, but it’s clear even Libby understands the oligarchs don’t back losers. And she’s worried.

The rest of the hearing was a chorus of clarity. The ACLU, Mainers for Modern Elections and a stream of advocates honed in on the real impact: disenfranchisement of rural, disabled, elderly, and low-income voters. Merchant mariners. Veterans. People of Color. The electorate who don’t fit into the tidy boxes of Republican talking points.

Whether this Democratic coordination was planned or spontaneous, the result was devastatingly effective. The GOP should start preparing for what happens when the voters they’re trying to suppress show up pissed off and better organized than the faux-grassroots astro-turfers funded by enemies of democracy.

Because Mainers are tired of the fear-mongering bullshit and histrionic indignation. And we’re tired of being dragged into a culture war being by waged by plutocrats, nabobs and money-baggers worried their applecart(s) will soon be upset by a woke mob. Who vote.